Dear DadFour
by OkobojiOddOne
Summary: This is just like the classic Dear Dad episodes, with a "Help From a Teenager" twist. As always, it would help if you've read "It Takes a Teenager to Tell" and "The Youngest Army Nurse". H/M included! Hope you like it!


_Author's Note: This story is in the "Help From a Teenager" series and is like the other "Dear Dad" episodes. This one however takes place shortly after Christmas and before Cora O'Lanny Pierce is born. As always, it will only make sense if you've read at least "It Takes a Teenager to Tell" and "The Youngest Army Nurse". Enjoy!_

"**Dear Dad…Four"**

**By: Corka**

Hawkeye walked into his and Margaret's tent at about 3:00am after working in Post-op. He wasn't very tired for once, so he took a writing pad out of the drawer in the desk and started a letter.

_Dear Dad,_

_The war here keeps going on, and on, and on. Things are exciting though with the baby coming in a couple of weeks. Margaret's doing well, although she's getting tired easier as she gets closer and closer to the due date. I'm telling you though, I'M WORRIED AS HELL ABOUT HER AND THE BABY! BJ says that's normal for any first-time father, let alone someone who is becoming one in the middle of a war zone._

_How far had Cora O'Lanny come in my last letter? Well, she made a full recovery and is now helping out in the O.R. She carries litters from triage and helps out when one of the nurses is sick, or when I make Margaret rest. Margaret doesn't necessarily want to take brakes so often, but I end up sort of begging her too. Cora does a good job in the O.R. though. I was a little skeptical of having a 14 year old assisting the doctors on operations, but she's a lot better of a fill-in than Radar, who passes out every time he sees blood. I'm surprised ketchup doesn't have the same effect on him. Cora really enjoyed the flute that we all pitched in to buy her for Christmas. You know, last week something incredible happened with her…_

**A Week Earlier**

"Cora, over here!" The 4077th had just gotten swamped with wounded and Hawkeye called Cora over to where he was in triage.

"Yeah Hawk?" She ran over and knelt down beside him.

"This guy said he was from Milford. I thought you might like to meet him." Hawkeye was looking over a man in his mid thirties who wore glasses, was balding, and had a strange resemblance to a turtle. The man had caught a bullet in the shoulder.

"Mr. DeWiley?" Cora asked with a mixture of shock and amazement in her voice.

"Cora O'Lanny?" The lieutenant was equally shocked. "It hasn't been _that_ long since you were in my class has it?"

"No sir, I was there two years ago. I just sort of…moved." Cora smiled as she remembered her days in the Milford Jr. High.

"I kind of take it you two know each other?" Hawkeye asked, a hint of confusion in his voice.

"This girl here was my best student." The corporal laughed a little before the pain in his shoulder made him stop.

"Mister, oh…Lieutenant DeWiley was my junior high science teacher." She explained to Hawkeye.

"I would still be teaching if I hadn't foolishly opened that stupid invitation to this little cocktail party from Truman."

"You got one of those too? I thought he just sent me one because I was special or something." Hawkeye added with an encouraging smile on his face.

"So, how come you're in Korea?" Cora's old teacher asked her.

"I'll explain everything later in Post-Op. Until then, listen to the nurses, do as the doctors say, and try not to get involved in any track practices for awhile until we get you put back together." Cora laughed and followed Hawkeye to another patient while Mr. DeWiley tried not to laugh on his way into pre-op.

_I'm happy to say that the operation went well for Lieutenant DeWiley and Cora had a wonderful time talking to him in post-op, until the day before he left when he told her about her friend's death. I feel horrible though, because even when she told me about how her mother died, or when she found out her dad was dead, I have never seen Cora so upset._

**Three Days Earlier (From when Hawkeye started the letter)**

Cora was eating supper with Hawkeye and Margaret in the mess tent. She was just told about her friend, Alyssa's, death. She was killed in a car accident, on her way to an away basketball game. Cora was playing with her food that was on her tray. She really didn't feel like eating and hadn't really seen what was on the tray, but when she saw that there were two potato wedges in the midst of the ketchup that she had put on them subconsciously, she couldn't take it any more. When she saw them, she lost it and ran out of the mess tent. Hawkeye and Margaret exchanged looks of concern.

"Stay here, I'll be right back." Hawkeye got up and ran after Cora. He found her sitting behind the kitchen crying, her back against the wall, holding her knees by her chin.

"You okay?" Hawkeye's eyes grew soft as he went over and sat beside her.

"Alyssa and I…had this ongoing joke about potato wedges, and I don't even remember what the joke was about, but every time I see them, I think of her." She cried a little harder but had a small smile on her face, thinking of the memory.

"Shh…I know…I know." Hawkeye put his arm around her and she put her head on his shoulder as she cried.

"You know how I told Mr. DeWiley that it had been two years since I had been in his _junior high_ class?" She asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"Well I never told anyone here this, but when I was in elementary school, I got bumped up a grade. The last year of school in Milford that I had was my freshman year when I was 13...Alyssa was a junior and she always called me her freshman." Hawkeye listened intently as Cora told her story while she cried. "We had so much fun. She played piccolo in the band and in pep band we'd always sing the songs when the flutes didn't play…The last day of school was my second to last day in Milford…and when Alyssa and I walked out of school at 3:15, she said that we would have to do stuff together that summer. I hadn't told her that we were moving. I said that it would be pretty hard to do because we were moving to Muskegon…She started crying and gave me this big hug and told me that she didn't want to see her freshman go. And I said that I didn't really want to leave my Junior either. The last thing I ever said to her was, 'You made high school survivable.'" She cried some more.

"I'm sorry Cora. I'm so sorry." Hawkeye rubbed the crying girl's back a little to try to comfort her, but it didn't help that much. After about five minutes, he added, "Look, why don't we go back into the mess tent before we freeze to death out here?" He got up and held a hand out for Cora. When she got up, he hugged her and put a hand on her shoulder as they walked into the mess tent.

_But, onto a happy note dad. The nurses threw a baby shower for Margaret last night. They gave her baby clothes and bottles and diapers. Colonel Potter stopped by to give her his gift as well. A crib. It looks like it will be a nice one. Margaret wants me to put it together tomorrow. Let's see how that works out…?! Well, it's about 4:00am now and I'm pretty tired. I'm going to get some sleep and write more tomorrow._

With that, Hawkeye closed the tablet and turned out the light. He crawled in bed by his wife and wrapped his arms around her and fell asleep within minutes.

**The Next Day**

"Hey Beej?" Hawkeye was attempting to put the crib together in his and Margaret's tent, but saw BJ going by.

"Yeah Hawk?" He stopped.

"Will you uh…come help me?" Hawkeye couldn't figure the crib out.

"Ah, can't do it huh?" BJ smiled and laughed a little. "I'll help, don't worry."

"Thanks." After about two hours of trying and not succeeding, Margaret walked in with Cora behind her.

"Are you guys still working on that?" Margaret asked in amusement.

"Wow." Cora agreed.

"Hey, it's not as easy as it looks." Hawkeye said in a mock defensive tone.

"Have you read the instructions?" Margaret asked trying to hold back her laughter, but not fully succeeding.

"We tried that. They're in Japanese." BJ held them up to prove it.

"Can I have a crack at it?" Cora asked.

"Sure, why not." Hawkeye handed her the piece that was in his hand, and within another hour, the crib was put together and sitting in the corner.

"Not that easy?" Cora asked, joking around with the two men.

"Okay, okay. So we can put bodies back together, but we can't put a simple crib together." Hawkeye laughed along with BJ.

"You know you just got showed up by a 14 year old right?" Margaret asked sarcastically as she wrapped her arms around her husband and put her head on his chest. "Oh, I can't wait until that thing can be used. My back is killing me."

"Me neither honey, me neither." Hawkeye rubbed his wife's back up and down and kissed her head.

"Would Captain Hunnicutt please report to Colonel Potter's office. Thank you." The PA system went off.

"Okay, well I'll see you later I guess." BJ started out the door.

"Oooo, somebody's in trouble." Both Hawkeye and Cora chimed out in fun.

"Ha…Ha." BJ headed to the office.

_So I was showed up by a 14 year old who put the crib together by herself in less time than BJ and I took on it and couldn't figure it out! I'm never gonna hear the end of that!_

_So BJ was assigned to be the morale officer and he came up with this 'bright' idea. A talent night. Although the last talent night I told you about was really lousy, this one wasn't half bad. It was actually a lot of fun. Margaret and I sang "As Time Goes By" although she couldn't hold a tune if her life depended on it. Although, the best act by far was what BJ and Cora did…_

The mess tent was filled with the members of the 4077th. If they wanted to do something for the talent night, they just had to go up when the one before was over. As Radar did impressions of famous people, BJ leaned over to Cora. "You want to do something?"

"Like what?" She whispered.

"I don't know. Play your flute, sing a song…"

"I'm not singing by myself." She shook her head.

"Hey, I just had an idea. You want to do a routine with me?" BJ smiled. "Come on, it'll be fun."

"I don't know. I don't know all the words to many songs." Cora thought for a moment.

"What songs do you know all the words to?" he asked.

"Well, I know all the words to 'Baby It's Cold Outside'." She said sort of shyly.

"Hey, I know the words to that too. What do you say? Want to?"

"I don't know…I've never done anything like this away from Camp Foster." She was actually really shy.

"Come on, I promise it will be fun." BJ urged her.

"Okay fine, I'll do it." Cora sighed and shrugged her shoulders. She and BJ went up to the side of the makeshift stage and waited until Radar was done. Father Mulcahy introduced them.

"And next, from Mill Valley, California and Milford, Iowa: I give you BJ Hunnicutt and Cora O'Lanny singing 'Baby It's Cold Outside'."

Everyone laughed and clapped as BJ and Cora went up on stage. When the music started, Cora took a deep breath and started the song. She did a wonderful job with the singing. She and BJ also threw in a little dance in with the song and it turned out to sound pretty good. When the song was done, BJ took Cora's hand and raised it as they both bowed to the audience. Cora had a huge smile on her face and laughed as she said, "I can't believe I just did that! That was so much fun!"

Everyone clapped and clapped and when they got back to where they were sitting by Hawkeye, Margaret, Charles, Colonel Potter, and Radar, they all said how nice it was to see a smile back on Cora's face.

_Well Dad, I really can't think of anything else that's happened around here now, and there's going to be a poker game in the Swamp in a few minutes that Sidney Freedman came down for. I miss you and love you very much. I'll call you as soon as Margaret has the baby and you become a grandfather. Margaret also sends her love._

_Your loving son and, thankfully, unsuccessful draft dodger,_

_Hawkeye_


End file.
